The Grand Writing Adventures of Victor Chang

This was something I never intended to share. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to share it because this was the point of the website after all.

Til It’s Over is a personal story, heavily inspired by true events. It’s basically an autobiography. It was inspired by a meeting I had with my ex girlfriend in November 2021. The intent was to reconnect but something else happened. It was nostalgia. It was dangerous and I didn’t like it because it felt too familiar. I had to capture these feelings in a story.

Til It’s Over is also inspired by the Lord Huron album “Strange Trails.” I even name check 3 songs by them in montages. The main characters are Johnny and Luisa, former best friends, lovers, and now estranged.

The story is simple. Johnny is called by Luisa’s mom to come up to visit her upstate in Marlboro (inspired by a friend who’s from there) because her grandma is sick. There, Johnny and Luisa try to fix their relationship. Sound familiar?

If my previous writings were loosely inspired by parts of my life, this one is basically copying it. I’d say the closest comparison is “Daughters of Sons”, which captured how I felt in 2013. Most of the other ones only picked pieces but “Til It’s Over” was a very specific part of my life that I just had to write down. I wanted to write this in a journal, but I thought a story would be be more entertaining.

Almost everything in this story is true. My ex does live upstate, although she runs a jam business, and her dad really does like to hunt, and her mom really does feel overwhelmed, and her grandma really is that cool. I don’t know much about her husband, so that was mostly fiction. I would say she is a bit hotheaded, although I think I wrote her a little bit more hotheaded than normal. I have definitely shot a bb gun off of her porch with her dad. They certainly do have a large garden. There’s other things, but those are the notable elements.

Many of the arguments in this were directly ripped from real life. It’s sort of how I would imagine myself arguing with her about things, and how I would imagine she would respond to me. I would say that all of the emotions, especially regarding how I regret not having her in my life despite the complicated circumstances… all of that is true. Our relationship today is… fine. But it won’t be the same.

I talked to her about writing this. There were a few takeaways from this:

1. She was super into the idea, and supported me.
2. She didn’t want me to even fictionally “kill” her grandma.
3. I never shared this with her, because I thought it was bad.

I decided to share this with the world, anyway. It’s not revealing or condemning or anything. It’s just a little… simple. I’m documenting this here because I think this showcases my journey as a silly little writer. There are times when you feel inspired to bring in your life into fiction, and times when you are far removed. Late 2021 into early 2022 was the former.